Hi, I have a question regarding the list of Acorna books listed by Cheryl. I have almost the complete set, but she wrote that the first title is Acorna (with Margaret Ball), and than it writes *The Unicorn Girl (Jody Lynn Nye et al.; *not authored by McCaffrey). Ok, I have the Unicorn girl, but is that the same as Acorna?

From the Weyr and from the Bowl
Bronze and Brown and Blue and Green,
Rise the dragonmen of Pern,
Aloft, on wing, seen, then unseen.
Dragonman avoid excess
Greed will bring the Weyr distress;
To the ancient Laws adhere,
Prospers thus the Dragon-weyr.

From the Weyr and from the Bowl
Bronze and Brown and Blue and Green,
Rise the dragonmen of Pern,
Aloft, on wing, seen, then unseen.
Dragonman avoid excess
Greed will bring the Weyr distress;
To the ancient Laws adhere,
Prospers thus the Dragon-weyr.

From the Weyr and from the Bowl
Bronze and Brown and Blue and Green,
Rise the dragonmen of Pern,
Aloft, on wing, seen, then unseen.
Dragonman avoid excess
Greed will bring the Weyr distress;
To the ancient Laws adhere,
Prospers thus the Dragon-weyr.

I was invited to submit a story for The Unicorn Girl but had a lot of other things on my plate at the time. It was a theme anthology based on the Acorna concept. The whole idea behind Acorna originally was that it was supposed to be an inspiration for multi-media work, the concept could have been turned into a cartoon show, graphic novel, all sorts of unexploited possibilities. Alas, it never did.
But the stories in Unicorn girl were paid for so I don't think they really qualify as fan fic. And Jody Lyn's books weren't really fan fic either--they were under contract to Tor and anyway, Jody Lyn may be a fan of Annie's (as am I) but she's also a collaborator and a professional author and editor. There's another important part to this in that Annie gets a share of the proceeds of all of this work. It isn't something done independently of her that she rubber stamped afterward--there was an agreement and a pre-existing contract, and she got compensated, as is only fair, for use of her intellectual property and her name.
BTW, Punkin's real name wasn't actually Pumpkin or Punkin. I was just reminded that as a registered Maine Coon purebred cat, he had a very fancy name but he did look more like a Punkin (pumpkin). That's him Annie is cuddling in the author picture on the inside flap of the jacket of Catalyst.

The first two Acorna novels are Acorna, then Acorna's Quest by Anne and Margaret Ball.
Followed by the five with Annie and me. 3. Acorna's People 4. Acorna's World 5. Acorna's Search 6. Acrona's Rebels (lots of cats in this one) and 7. Acorna's Triumph. Then there are three in the Acorna's Children series 1. First Warning 2. Second Watch 3. Third Wave
that are continuations of the original series featuring Acorna's daughters and android foster son. For more about these series including synopsis and US cover art, see the page on my website http://www.eascarborough.com/books/acorna.htm

Eann, I have to disagree with you. I don't think you can see The Unicorn Girl as (totally) seperate from the story line of the (early) Acorna books. You probably mean that is itsn't a art of the series as a whole? I suppose, especially with the information you gave, it's logical that's it's not an integral part of the series and the plots of the tories are not needed for the series' books, but you can't see the stories seperate from the series as they have the same characters and especially a story like Mickey Zucker Reichert's "Trouble in Kezedet" loans heavily from the original series.
If you see Acorna's search for her people and subsequently for her love as the "main storyline", then you are, of course, eminently correct. To my feeling the stories are part of the series, but I'd be interested to hear what others say/think or if I misunderstood you somewhat.

And oh, I think it's an absolutely shame that life cheated you out of contributing a story to that book!

__________________Hans, also known as Elrhan, Master Archivist

Visit The Pern Museum & Archives for all your Pern and Anne McCaffrey News and Resources!
The Pern Museum & Archives is the home of the Pern Encyclopedia and the Pern Bloodlines.

Life didn't cheat me out of contributing a story to the book, Hans. I declined because I was busy with other projects. Good grief, man, I wrote 8 books in that series, which is more Acorna than most people. Drawing on the same world is not the same thing as being part of the storyline though. Even if you use some of the same characters. There have been several, if not many, anthologies that do that.
Actually, I edited something similar for my Channeling Cleopatra and Cleopatra 7.2 books. There was an anthology, Past Lives Present Tense, first where I invited other authors to play with the same idea--and a few of the central characters. As in the solicitation for the Unicorn Girl, the boundaries were outlined so that while a short story seemed to be happening within the same world and time, it would not inhibit me (or in the case of Unicorn Girl, Margaret, Anne or much later, me) in developing situations and characters. My own story was a prequel to the other two books and they referred back to it, alluding to some of the characters in it. Several of the other stories also mentioned these characters but their stories were independent of mine and of the rest of the book. The relationship was that they used the same central idea. I don't know if I still have it, but the last time I rooted through my files I did see the solicitation to participate in The Unicorn Girl and it was pretty detailed about what could and could not be used by those contributing stories. That was one reason I declined. I was juggling two novels and editing another one and didn't have time for the complexity of shoe-horning in a story of my own in another milieu.

<snip>I don't know if I still have it, but the last time I rooted through my files I did see the solicitation to participate in The Unicorn Girl and it was pretty detailed about what could and could not be used by those contributing stories. That was one reason I declined. I was juggling two novels and editing another one and didn't have time for the complexity of shoe-horning in a story of my own in another milieu.

That's pretty interesting and another reason that it is really great to have real authors here on MoM

OK, not 'cheated' by life than, but by hard work. I'm sure you don't mind me wanting a short story by your hand in there.

Side question: to which (who'se) world wouldn't you mind contributing a story?

__________________Hans, also known as Elrhan, Master Archivist

Visit The Pern Museum & Archives for all your Pern and Anne McCaffrey News and Resources!
The Pern Museum & Archives is the home of the Pern Encyclopedia and the Pern Bloodlines.

Oh, I've done scads and scads of short stories for various theme anthologies--the only one I recall as being set in another author's world though was one I wrote for Andre Norton for a Witch World antho. It might have been my very first short story.
I'd have done one for Acorna or any of the other of Anne's worlds if I had had the time. But often the deadlines are rather quick on these things. The antho I most enjoyed working on was the one Annie and I edited together called Space Opera. We got some really wonderful stories for that--Spider Robinson's and Gene Wolfe's still stand out in my mind. But that wasn't set in a particular world. It would be very challenging to do something for any of the large and intricate constructs of some authors but I wouldn't mind trying one for Terry Pratchett's Disc (or is it with a "k"?) World should the opportunity arise. Only if I got to play with some of his characters. I'm just now listening to the Wee Free Men series on audio books and it's still a joy. I also like Johnny and the Dead (and the Bomb and there was one other one) and the Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents.

The first two Acorna novels are Acorna, then Acorna's Quest by Anne and Margaret Ball.
Followed by the five with Annie and me. 3. Acorna's People 4. Acorna's World 5. Acorna's Search 6. Acrona's Rebels (lots of cats in this one) and 7. Acorna's Triumph. Then there are three in the Acorna's Children series 1. First Warning 2. Second Watch 3. Third Wave
that are continuations of the original series featuring Acorna's daughters and android foster son. For more about these series including synopsis and US cover art, see the page on my website http://www.eascarborough.com/books/acorna.htm

6. Acrona's Rebels (lots of cats in this one) Why I love it thanks I' don have 2,3,4 of the books, and I bet the reader for the National Libary Services for the Blind and Physicallly Handicapped had a hard time with some of the worlds, glad they had the Glossary in the front of book on tape then the back or folk wouldn't have understand it.

Becker and RK are my characters and the Baron's daughter appeared in one of the books with them--so that wasn't in Unicorn Girl. I made up those characters after Unicorn Girl was published. (Becker and RK, not the Baron's daughter)